Smithfield Foods Vows to Reduce Food Loss and Waste 50% by 2030
Smithfield Foods, Inc. announced a new goal on Jan. 5 to cut overall food loss and waste in its U.S. company-owned operations by 2030. According to the company, this new commitment aligns with various resource conservation and waste reduction initiatives currently underway in its operations, including efforts to reduce overall waste sent to landfills by 75% and achieve zero-waste-to-landfill certification at three-quarters of its U.S. facilities by 2025.
Because of this new target, Smithfield has become part of USDA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions list of private businesses and organizations which have publicly committed to reducing food loss and waste.
“For years, Smithfield has spearheaded impactful programs to proactively minimize waste and reduce carbon emissions. Simultaneously, we’ve taken meaningful action to fight food insecurity in our communities,” Stewart Leeth, chief sustainability officer for Smithfield Foods, said in a release. “Our new food loss and waste goal furthers both of these objectives and underscores our longstanding commitment to produce wholesome, safe and affordable food in a responsible way.”
The company has also accepted an invitation to the 10x20x30 initiative, which brings together 10+ of the world’s largest food retailers and providers to engage at least 20 suppliers to halve food loss and waste by 2030. In addition, Smithfield is a member of the Farm Powered Strategic Alliance, an initiative by Vanguard Renewables, Unilever, Starbucks and Dairy Farmers of America that aims to avoid or eliminate food waste first and repurpose what can’t be eliminated into renewable energy via farm-based anaerobic digesters.
AGCO’s AP Brand Wins AE50 Award for New Feed System
AP, the swine equipment brand of AGCO, has won an AE50 award for its new Flex-Flo XD ULTRA Unloader feed system bestowed by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, an educational and scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of engineering applicable to agricultural, food and biological systems. AE50 awards recognize top innovative products each year based on significant engineering advancement and impact for the markets they serve.
Introduced in June 2021, the Flex-Flo XD ULTRA Unloader offers a 50% larger boot to minimize feed bridging events, a fiberglass-filled wear plate for four times more wear resistance, efficient and cost-effective feed delivery and durable housing with less corrosion, the company said in a release.
USDA and Boehringer Ingelheim Expand Summer Research Opportunities for Vet Students
Boehringer Ingelheim and the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are joining forces to offer veterinary students the opportunity to research diseases that could affect livestock and public health. According to Boehringer Ingelheim, the collaboration expands the Boehringer Ingelheim-led Veterinary Scholars Program, which has provided stipends to more than 3,500 veterinary students in the last 30 years to pursue biomedical research.
The expansion will create opportunities for up to 12 students to spend the summer at one of nine USDA sites working with an ARS scientist on a research project in livestock infectious diseases, the company said. Boehringer Ingelheim and USDA will cover all costs for the students, including a monthly stipend and costs associated with traveling to and from their schools to the USDA centers.
USDA’s funding for the program is part of the Agrosecurity Partnerships for Innovative Research, or ASPIRE platform, which aims to stimulate the entire bio and agro-defense research sector through strategic partnerships. The goal of this five-year partnership with the Veterinary Scholars Program is to enhance relationships with national and international veterinary schools by providing their students with collaborative research opportunities in ARS’s specialized facilities. These facilities include the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, IA and the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, in Manhattan, Kansas.
The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, still under construction, will have biosafety level-2, -3 and -4 laboratories capable of holding large livestock with a mission to protect the U.S. against the threat and potential negative effects of transboundary, emerging and zoonotic animal diseases, the release said.
After spending the summer conducting research and learning from USDA scientists, students will attend and present their work at the annual National Veterinary Scholars Symposium, to be hosted in 2022 by the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine in St. Paul, Minn.
The USDA will join Boehringer Ingelheim, the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the National Institutes of Health to sponsor this annual symposium which showcases research by several hundred veterinary students as part of their Veterinary Scholar Program internships at more than three dozen veterinary schools and agencies across the U.S.
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